Two Takes on Infinite Zoom with Psyop and Johnny Kelly


Enjoy the infinite zoom technique employed in two different styles — Psyop zooms into lush landscapes overrun with surreal details in Toshiba “Endless Performance” and Johnny Kelly zooms out through orthographic illustrations of a universe inhabited by books in New York Times Book Review “Holiday Books”. I particularly love the sound design moment by David Kamp where the cutting board syncs with the music.

For more zoom-a-zoom-zoom-zoom and a boom-boom, check out ZoomQuilt, ZoomQuilt II, and the classic Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames.


Toshiba “Endless Performance” Credits
Brief: Toshiba Encore Tablet
Client: Toshiba
Agency: McCann Enterprise
Exec Creative Director: Will Shepherd
Creative Directors: Mark McCall, Richard Dorey
Account Handlers: Kat Patterson, Tamsin Devereux, Fred Letts
Agency Producer: Holly Edwards
Production Company: Psyop
Creative Directors: Kylie Matulick, Fletcher Moules
Producer: Shannon Alexander
Designer: Paul Kim, Therese Larsson, Paul Mager, Chris Martin, Andrew Park, Velwyn Yossy
Lead Technical Director: Stephen DeLalla, Matt Lavoy
Previz Artist: Victor Garza, Brianne Meyer
Modeler: Larissa Docolas, Rie Ito, Wendy Klein, Brianne Meyer
Texture Artist: Larissa Docolas, Wendy Klein
Rigger: David Bokser, Sean Kealey
Lighter: Robby Branham, Stephen DeLalla
3D Generalist: Stephen DeLalla
3D Animator: David Bokser, Chris Meek, Brianne Meyer
2D Animator: Max Graenitz, Rachel Yonda
Storyboard Artist: Josh Wiesenfeld
Matte Painter: Chris Brock, Edmund Liang, Velwyn Yossy, Paul Kim
Compositor: Katerina Arroyo, Matt Lavoy
Flame Artist: Matt Lavoy
Editor: Lance Pereira
Assistant Producer: Jessica Schlobolm
Music Title & Artist: From Nowhere (Artist: Dan Croll)
Post Production: Psyop / Craft London
Sound Design: Craft London
Media Planning: Rocket

New York Times Book Review “Holiday Books” Credits
Production Company: Nexus
Director + Designer: Johnny Kelly
Producer: Isobel Conroy
Project Lead: Mark Davies
Animation: Sergei Shabarov, Michal Firkowski, Fabrice Fiteni, Mark Davies
3D Rendering: Michal Firkowski, Jeremi Boutelet, Mark Davies
3D Modeller: Florent Rousseau
Compositing: Elliott Kajdan
Client: New York Times Book Review
Art Direction: Nicholas Blechman
Music & Sound Design: David Kamp

Johnny Kelly: Back to the Start


Chipotle? Yes, Chipotle. In an effort to raise awareness concerning food issues and promote sustainable food systems, they’ve commissioned Back to the Start, a short film by Johnny Kelly, scored by Willie Nelson’s rendition of Coldplay’s “The Scientist.” In Kelly’s signature style, we follow a farmer’s life as his family farm turns into an industrial animal factory, and what follows from there.

Production photos from Johnny’s Flickr after the jump.

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Johnny Kelly: Bacardi “Manifesto”


Time to karate chop the clock! Loving the little touches like iguana tail and chicken claw fondue in Johnny Kelly‘s new spot for Bacardi. (via @brangrow)

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Johnny Kelly’s Play for YouTube

Nexus Production’s director Johnny Kelly just made this short film for YouTube Play, an exhibition that YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum in NYC are calling “a Biennial of Creative Video” and which you can submit or nominate your own non-commercial work to right now; submissions are open until July 31st. Johnny’s piece is top-notch, encapsulating the Youtube experience in life-size sets which reference famous art works and also run the gamut from wood-grain explosions to rocky caves to circuit-boards and geometric cityscapes, all using the familiar Youtube play button as a central motif. Johnny explained his idea in the press release from Nexus:

“I wanted to try and capture that down the rabbit hole feeling you get when watching YouTube – you start by watching something innocent like a music video, then another video catches your eye and before you know it you’ve spent your fourth hour watching videos of pandas playing pianos. From a technical point of view, it was a challenging animation assault course, with much head-scratching and figuring out along the way. I was very fortunate to be surrounded by brainiacs like production designer Graham Staughton who always had an inventive solution to any problem we came up against.”

The NY Times ran an article on the exhibition yesterday as well, which had an interesting alternative viewpoint expressed by Robert Storr, dean of the Yale University School of Art, which is well worth considering:

“It’s time to stop kidding ourselves,” Mr. Storr added. “The museum as revolving door for new talent is the enemy of art and of talent, not their friend — and the enemy of the public as well, since it refuses to actually serve that public but serves up art as if it was quick-to-spoil produce from a Fresh Direct warehouse.”

We’ll see what the Guggenheim and Youtube eventually pick to include in their show, but if they’re already onto Johnny Kelly, I think it’ll be well worth checking out. Here’s an interesting making-of video if you want to see more.

Credits:
Client: Google / YouTube
Title: YouTube_PLAY Call Out Video
Length: 38 seconds

Client: Across The Pond Productions | Creative Lab EMEA – Google
Executive Producer: Rachna Suri

Production Company: Nexus
Director: Johnny Kelly
Executive Producer: Julia Parfitt
Producers: Liz Chan & Beccy McCray
Animation: Nexus Productions
Compositing: Alasdair Brotherston

Director of Photography: Matthew Day

Production Designer: Graham Staughton @ We Are The Art Department
Stop Motion Animator: Matthew Cooper

Sound Design: Barnaby Templer at Fonic

Music: Music by Niwouinwouin. Courtesy of Ego Twister Records

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